How Much Money Do You Start With In Monopoly? All Versions

If you’re starting a new game of Monopoly, one of the first questions you’ll have is how much money each player should start with.

In a classic game of Monopoly, each player starts with $1,500 at the beginning of the game.

However, there are several important variables that go beyond that, which is why you should keep reading our Monopoly starting money guide.

For example, you’ll need to divide the money in a specific way if you want to get the Monopoly starting money right.

To make matters a little more complicated, different editions of Monopoly have different rules when it comes to starting money, so you’ll need to make sure that you have the correct value for the actual game that you’re playing.

To help you set up your game the right way, this post will cover the Monopoly money distribution for all the popular editions.

How Much Money Do You Start With In Monopoly

Classic Monopoly Money Distribution

For the classic Monopoly game, each player should start with $1,500.

You should divide this money as follows:

• 2x $500
• 4x $100
• 1x $50
• 1x $20
• 2x $10
• 1x $5
• 5x $1

Some older Monopoly sets will distribute the money slightly differently. This is generally true of Monopoly games from before 2008.

Overall, the Monopoly money distribution isn’t super essential. You can distribute the money in different ways as long as it adds up to $1,500.

Each player gets the same amount of money no matter how many people are playing the game. So whether you’re playing with two, three, or four players, each player always starts with $1,500.

How Much Money Do You Start With in Monopoly UK?

In Monopoly UK, each player starts with £1,500. It’s literally identical to the classic Monopoly game – the only difference is that it uses Pounds instead of dollars.

The Monopoly UK money distribution is also the same:

• 2x £500
• 4x £100
• 1x £50
• 1x £20
• 2x £10
• 1x £5
• 5x £1

How Much Money Do You Start With in Monopoly Australia?

In Monopoly Australia, each player starts with $1,500. It’s also identical to the classic Monopoly game, though I suppose you can think that you’re using Australian dollars instead.

The same holds true for pretty much every other geographic version of Monopoly. You use 1,500 in whatever the local currency is.

Here are two more examples:

• Monopoly Canada – each player starts with $1,500.
• Monopoly Germany – each player starts with €1,500 (the same is true for other EU countries).

How Much Money Do You Get In Monopoly Cheaters Edition?

In Monopoly Cheater addition, each player begins the game with $1,500, just as in the classic game.

However, the money distribution needs to be slightly different because the smallest note in Cheaters Edition is $10, which means you’re missing the $5 and $1 notes from the classic game.

As such, the Monopoly Cheaters Edition distribution is as follows:

• 2x $500
• 4x $100
• 1x $50
• 1x $20
• 3x $10

How Much Money Do You Start With In Monopoly Junior?

Monopoly Junior handles the money distribution a bit differently because the amount of money that each player starts with depends on how many people are playing the game.

Since 2013, Monopoly Junior only comes with $1 notes, which makes it very easy to distribute the money. However, older versions have the game have $1, $2, $3, $4, and $5 bills.

Here’s how much money each player starts with in Monopoly Junior based on the number of people playing:

• Two players – Each player starts with $20
• Three players – Each player starts with $18
• Four players – Each player starts with $16

How Much Money Do You Start With In Monopoly Empire?

True to its name, Monopoly Empire has much higher denominations so the starting money is much higher.

In Monopoly Empire, each player begins the game with $1,000,000. The Monopoly Empire money distribution is as follows:

• 1x $500,000
• 4x $100,000
• 2x $50,000

However, you should note that Monopoly Empire doesn’t put all of the zeroes on the currency. So the $500,000 note will only show up as $500 in the game. Just imagine that there are three extra zeroes behind all of the numbers on the notes.

Monopoly Speed Die Rules Money Distribution

Monopoly added the Speed Die to its Standard Edition back in 2007.

The idea was to make the game go faster by changing a number of rules, including how much money you start with in Monopoly.

With Speed Die, each player starts with an extra $1,000. 

While it might seem counterintuitive that giving players more money leads to a faster game, that’s how it works. Combined with the other changes, this lets players buy and build stuff quicker, which is part of speeding up the game.

You can distribute the extra $1,000 however you want – the simplest option is to just give each player two extra $500 notes.

So with Monopoly Speed Die, the starting money might look like this:

• 4x $500 (the only change)
• 4x $100
• 1x $50
• 1x $20
• 2x $10
• 1x $5
• 5x $1

How Much Money Comes In A Monopoly Set?

Now that you know all about the Monopoly starting money, your next question might be how much money comes with the game.

Well, the amount of money in the game has actually gone up over time. Inflation – am I right? 

In the past, classic Monopoly games shipped with a total of $15,140, which was then bumped up to $20,580.

However, since 2022 and onward, all Monopoly games now come with a whopping $118,660, which equals 45 of each denomination.

So if you have a recent version of the game, it’s unlikely that you’ll run into any money troubles, no matter how many people are playing the game.

It’s important to note that, much like the Federal Reserve Bank, the Monopoly bank can never really run out of money because you’re always free to make your own money. 

In fact, if the bank does run out of money, that’s actually the proper solution because it’s impossible for the Monopoly bank to go bankrupt.

You’re free to create your own money by writing on pieces of paper, using tokens (e.g. poker chips), or even printing your own money with a custom design.

Basically, while the amount of money that players have is very important to the game, the amount of money that the bank has shouldn’t matter because the bank is essentially supposed to have unlimited money, even if it doesn’t come with unlimited money in the box.

Again, the parallels between Monopoly and our own central banking system are pretty apt.

Enjoy Your Game of Monopoly!

Now that you know how much money each player starts with in Monopoly, you’re ready to start your game.

To have a successful game, however, you’ll also want to brush up on the other Monopoly rules.

One of the most important rules to understand are the rules around Monopoly auctions. If you do auctions properly, your game should go a lot faster.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your game!